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ChoppinBroccoli Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 12:43 AM
Original message
I Want To Smack Every Teabagger I See

Just a little background information first. My oldest son turned 5 this month and is going to be starting Kindergarten in the fall. In the school district where we live, there are several elementary schools, but only one of them has all day, every day Kindergarten, and the one my son would attend based solely on where we live isn't one of them. However, we were told that if we wanted to get him into all day, every day Kindergarten, we would have to request a transfer to the other school (which, by the way, is literally right next to the school he would normally attend), and then win a lottery (because pretty much every parent in that school district is naturally going to want his/her child to go to all day, every day Kindergarten. Well, last week, we found out that our son got into the all day Kindergarten program, so we were pretty excited about that. Between my wife and I, our work schedules would have taken a serious hit trying to accommodate pick-ups and drop-offs for just a half-day Kindergarten program, and we were stressing out over how we would get that to work, so this news was a big relief.

On Friday, we got 2 letters in the mail from the school system. The first one alerted us that our son had been approved to attend the all day, every day Kindergarten program, and told us everything we needed to know about how that would work. The second one advised us that because the recent school levy (voted on last week) was defeated, the school district was cutting out all transportation services (aka busing). Translation: I'm going to have to drive my child to school every day in the Fall. This would normally not be all that big a deal, but the doors to the elementary school don't open until 9:05 a.m. Guess what time I normally need to be in Court on the days I have Court. And since EVERY PARENT with a child in that school will ALSO be driving his/her child to school that day, what do you think the chances are that I'll be able to drive up to the door, drop him off, give him a quick good-bye, and then get immediately back on the road, given the line of cars trying to do the same thing?

Here's what irks me about this whole thing. We live in a fairly well-to-do suburb of Columbus. It's not Dublin or Upper Arlington (the uber-rich neighborhoods), but it's right up there. In the run-up to the vote on the school levy issue, there was a very visible and well-funded "Vote No on Issue 7" campaign waged (Issue 7 was the school levy, in case you couldn't figure that out). And nothing would upset me more than to drive home through the "rich neighborhood" and see these HUGE houses with "Vote No on 7" signs in their front yards. Yeah, I'm sure that extra fifteen bucks you're going to have to pay in taxes to support your local schools is going to REALLY break your bank, assholes.

So I said last Friday (after reading that letter), only HALF-facetiously, that every time I have a scheduling conflict that makes it difficult to drop my son off at school at 9:05 in the morning, I'm going to drive him up to the door of one of these houses with the "Vote No on 7" signs in the yard and tell them, "Here. YOU drive him to school today. Hope you choke on your 15 bucks, Asshole."

I'm getting so damn sick of living in "all taxes are evil" land. I ALWAYS voted for school levies, even when I didn't have children, because I value, and will ALWAYS support education, no matter whether I directly benefit from it or not. Anyone who would vote down a school levy qualifies as evil in my book.

I can understand the frustration and the inconvenience this causes, but I've lost all sympathy because for the liberals EVERY cause (except defense) is considered too important and necessary to cut even a little bit.

So, this family may not be "rich", but they are wealthy, beyond what most families in the US are and he is complaining because those who have more money than he does aren't paying more so that he doesn't have to pay and has more convenience. That's the liberal mindset. "You owe me." "It's the responsibility of those who have more money than I do to pay for what I want."

Oh, and ChoppinBroccoli, it's called CAR POOLING. Try it. Millions of families do it every year.

RKP5637 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 12:55 AM
Response to Original message
3. What these butt heads don't get is this is a country, not a corporation. The

balance sheets are different. If one runs a country like a corporation it will fail. The converse is also true. One does not fire people out of a country as non-essential and the same is true for funding of programs.

You just spend money you don't have without end. That's not OK for a "corporation" but it is for a country?

RKP5637 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 01:00 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. We really need all adults in this country to go through a remedial educational

program to understand the whole point of taxes and of collective action. As it is now, the Stupid is phenomenal.

BlueCaliDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 01:52 AM
Response to Reply #7
11. The Stupid are phenomenal AND growing in numbers. Greed and the American

Me! ME! Me! attitude is making this country rot from the inside out.

I understand some degree of wanting a little more for yourself, but when you have so much and you don't want to share a simple $15 bucks more in taxes to help our future - our children - do better so they can compete with children around the world, that's taking greed to a whole new low. And, sadly, this new phenomenon is very much exclusively an American affliction.

The irony here is thick. Just who is it that is shouting "ME! ME! ME!" here.

Back before the DUmmies improved everything by getting rid of the Death Penalty in most cases and by handcuffing our police, all kids walked to school at all ages...

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In actual dollars, President Obama’s $4.4 trillion in deficit spending in just three years is 37 percent higher than the previous record of $3.2 trillion (held by President George W. Bush) in deficit spending for an entire presidency. It’s no small feat to demolish an 8-year record in just 3 years.

Under Obama’s own projections, interest payments on the debt are on course to triple from 2010 (his first budgetary year) to 2018, climbing from $196 billion to $685 billion annually.

Here's an idea. Get all the parents together and start a transportation service. And I agree that the stupid is in hyper mode in that thread. They're crying that we Tea Partiers are the mememe people and yet they're crying about something they aren't getting. Like I said, pay for it yourself. Oh, and Tea Partiers don't worry about people breaking into their houses because most of the time, it's our houses is where a gun lives.

When I was a kid, my parents worked in factories. They had to be into work by about 6:30-7:00 every morning. They couldn't have driven me to school. This setup is VERY inconsiderate of parents. It's putting a lot of them in positions of having to choose between taking their kids to school or their jobs. While I don't approve of the term "teabagger" I can see this parent's frustration. While some programs may need to be cut back on and the schools need to prioritize their money better, there are some services that should NEVER NEVER EVER go. And yes, our children are entitled. They're entitled to an education. They're our future. We don't want them having a lack of education and we don't want their education or other well being to suffer because they got taken away from parents who couldn't take them to school. (Oh, BTW. Guess who pays for foster care?). Most people (including conservatives) believe that people have the right to work. This will get in the way of their being able to work. When they lose their jobs, guess who they'll turn to.

When I was a kid, my parents worked in factories. They had to be into work by about 6:30-7:00 every morning. They couldn't have driven me to school. This setup is VERY inconsiderate of parents. It's putting a lot of them in positions of having to choose between taking their kids to school or their jobs. While I don't approve of the term "teabagger" I can see this parent's frustration. While some programs may need to be cut back on and the schools need to prioritize their money better, there are some services that should NEVER NEVER EVER go. And yes, our children are entitled. They're entitled to an education. They're our future. We don't want them having a lack of education and we don't want their education or other well being to suffer because they got taken away from parents who couldn't take them to school. (Oh, BTW. Guess who pays for foster care?). Most people (including conservatives) believe that people have the right to work. This will get in the way of their being able to work. When they lose their jobs, guess who they'll turn to.

I believe this is the most retarded post you ever did. Entitled? OK, so let the parents pay for it. Why should I, with no children, pay for it? Need a ride to school? Pay for a service. Short answer, no one is entitled to anyone elses property i.e. money through taxation.

I believe this is the most retarded post you ever did. Entitled? OK, so let the parents pay for it. Why should I, with no children, pay for it? Need a ride to school? Pay for a service. Short answer, no one is entitled to anyone elses property i.e. money through taxation.

Because you depend entirely on the collective efforts and labor of people all around you, both in your community and even far away.

First and foremost, through the economy, then through communications systems, transportation systems, ect. ect. ect.

I understand that some people have a totally ME-CENTERED worldview, where they don't support anything that doesn't directly benefit them. Personally I find this view to be morally bankrupt, showing a total lack of basic decency and compassion for your fellow Americans.

So let me spell this out in a way that matters to an entirely selfish individual: an uneducated population hurts everyone, including you. When people don't have an education in our growing information society they are unable to find secure work, but their bellies still need food so they are more likely to become desperate and resort to crime. It may not jive with your peachy perfect utopian vision of America, but for some people in some situations, crime becomes the most realistic option for subsistence.

Even beyond the increase in crime, our national economy on the global marketplace will suffer the children of our nation not having a good education. We are a global marketplace and there's nothing we can do to change that, so large multinational corporations are able, with the help of technology, to easily move jobs to other countries. Other countries actually see education as a national priority, it's not a handout, it's an investment.

The children being educated today will be running the country in a few decades, making decisions, holding office, caring for the elderly, directing police action, and so on. If we don't invest in education, and treat it as something valuable that all children should be aspiring to, no amount of jingoism is going to save us from forces greater (and more educated) than ourselves.

Originally Posted by Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations

It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

They have started to cut transportation here as well. I actually feel sorry for that decision because the school bus drivers aren't the ones getting the teachers' salaries and pensions and other benefits. I would really see the actual working man/woman have their job than the teachers, with their bloated salaries and benefits.

Having said that, if what is going on from 9-3 is so important and life sustaining, then the extras, such as transportation, need to be cut when the budget is tight.

Perhaps chopping broccoli would agree to start a veggie-roots campaign to have the schools open an hour earlier so that parents have a bit more time to get to work. Perhaps he can convince the teachers' unions that that additional hour per day should be gratis, as it's for the sake of the children. And aren't the children entitled to that from their teachers?